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Monday, May 14, 2018

Review of Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

Fully in its third wave (hopefully nearing its end), its
fair to say steampunk has begun to exhaust itself.We need a break for it to revitalize. Its components
and devices have been deployed to the point of achieving stereotype status, and
it has been combined in the majority of ways possible with other genres.Gone are the days when steampunk was unaware
it was steampunk, and originality along with it.But every once in a while a book will poke
its nose from the crowd and say: ‘Hey,
novelty is still possible.Steampunk is
still viable.’Welcome to Josiah
Bancroft’s wonderful debut Senlin Ascends
(2013).

Set in the Silk Age, Senlin
Ascends tells of the adventures of Thomas Senlin, a school headmaster from
the countryside.Falling in love and
marrying the energetic, intelligent but younger Marya, the newlywed couple
decide to take their honeymoon in a place Senlin has long studied and taught
his students about but never visited: the tower of Babel.Not the tower of biblical fame, the Silk
Age’s tower is of a different age, but remains a massive structure rising into
the clouds like layers on a cake.The
first days of the honeymoon not going as planned, Senlin is separated from
Marya almost directly after arrival, forcing him to set out in search of
her.Following clues and bits of
information provided by people who saw her, Senlins slowly ascends the ringdoms
of the tower looking for his lost wife.Its convolutions threatening to derail his quest at every step, Senlin
must dig deep within himself to find the fortitude necessary to meet its
challenges.

My early notes from Senlin
Ascends read ‘strong Jules Verne-esque
adventure’.A classic British
gentleman out of his element caught up in an escapade beyond his control,
Bancroft’s novel possesses the spirit of Around
the World in Eighty Days or Journey
to the Center of the Earth.But at a
certain point, I added the note: ‘… with
a splash of Jonathan Swift”. Surreal
balanced with steampunk adventure, the situations Senlin finds himself him
steer just a hair wider than ‘readily explainable’. Certainly the physical
details of Senlin’s daily life, the tower, and the people he meets are
exposited in a fashion that is intended to be understood as real.But the connections between the novel’s
components and motivations for the scenes are not always so.In an early scene, Senlin follows a crowd of
people making their way higher into the tower.They are stopped and forced to participate in a theater production—to be
actors—if they want to reach the next ringdom.Rules, neither completely strange nor completely logical, are given them
for their performance, costumes are handed out, and the people are ushered onto
a closed stage.Unsure whether the play
has begun given there is no audience or director, Senlin looks at what the
other people are doing, and follows suit.There are several other scenes which have a similar air, but I daresay
this single scene sums up the novel’s relationship to its fictional reality.

Another reason I changed my mind on the Jules Verne parallels
is how Senlin Ascends balances its
light and dark elements.Not wholly a
light hearted affair of a British gentleman out of his element where the reader
is lead to assume there will be a happy ending, Senlin Ascends has a darker, more uncertain vibe. In one moment Senlin may be overlooking
sculpted, florid baths with mechanical hippos spewing water, and in another be forced
to watch a woman as she is gruesomely branded for breaking the most trivial of tower
laws.There is rarely a sense of real
danger or threat hanging over Senlin’s head, but certainly the reader is never
lead to trust their gut on the outcome of his quest.Heightening suspense in the search for Marya,
the novel is more engaging for its interplay of dark, light, and things
between.

Regarding technique, it appears Bancroft is one of those
writers with strong natural instinct.For a first novel, the prose is tight and precise, pace is neither too
fast or slow, worldbuilding is integrated with dialogue and plot development,
and there is a confidence unpacking the story that sustains itself from the
outset to the thrilling climax.I have
seen some reviewers compare Senlin
Ascends to Scott Lynch’s Lies of
Locke Lamora.Ignore that.Senlin
Ascends is by far the better written, not to mention the more sophisticated
text.

In the end, Senlin
Ascends is a solid debut novel.It
loses a bit of focus as it comes in for a landing, the title is a bit thin, and
dialogue could have done with a bit sharper edge to deliver that extra elbow nudge
toward the subtle humor it is attempting.But what’s available is wonderfully imaginative, possesses a fine,
dynamic lexicon, develops a unique atmosphere, and is ultimately a sincere, page-turning, romantic,
steampunk adventure that doesn’t hold the reader by the hand.Looking forward to The Arm of the Sphinx, Bancroft’s follow up to Senlin Ascends.